Blog Comments & Posts

This will sound like a noob question, but it's more of a WWMCD? - Let's say I have found a way to plant real, actual money trees. You plant them with $1 of common household items, and they start producing legitimate money within their first week. Obviously, the whole internet would want to hear about this, so let's say I post a how-to on my website.

This is in regards to the porn comment - highly popular, but not a lot of inbound links. What could I do to promote this page (using Google) without resorting to buying directory links? In other words, what is a "good for the user" way of getting popularity outside of natural links? How are the porn sites doing it (uh, getting the traffic)?

Setting up your site for an upsell is always a great idea. I left the online marketing world for awhile and worked as a sales guy for a computer store in Soldotna, Alaska - nowhere near computers. Let me tell you, all these concepts translate directly to offline sales as well.

I think it's important to carefully consider the demographics before pushing an upsale though. For example, this guy from Space Quest III is doing it wrong:

http://is.gd/cFOho

However, if you present up-sells or missed sells recoveries in the spirit of actually helping the customer find the right product (not just pretending), you'd be surprised how well it works. "I'm sorry, you were looking for a laptop that only costs $100, but can play all the latest games? No, we don't have the laptop you're looking for. We do however, have a large selection of used desktops in that price range that could be adapted to play games down the road - so let me ask you, which is more important, the ability to play games or the portability?" - now you're switching out the "Am I going to buy here or not?" question for "Which product am I going to buy here?"

When a book is on Amazon but not available for Kindle, there is a button on the side that says "I'd like to read this book on Kindle". Not a conversion today, but not an unhappy customer either - disappointed, but if the customer really wants that product (and is loyal enough to wait for Amazon to carry it), eventually Amazon will still get that sale.

I only know of two options to handle follow-ups: If the customer is funneled to log in (which requires the customer to log in before the purchase decision is made), or if a non-conversion interaction is set up. "Not what you were looking for? Click here to tell us why!" > "Would you like us to follow up with a phone call or email, or be notified when this product arrives?"

One thing I'd like to add is that with individual consultants and small business, there's no one right way to structure an SEO audit (or any other task). Especially in SEO, where we have customer interaction, creative, and analytical steps involved in each major goal; I think it's important to create our own schedules based around routines that work best for us as individuals. For example, I do my best creative work at night, so that's typically when I do keyword research and writing - which frees a couple hours for an extended lunch each day, giving me more energy for working with customers after lunch.